The present invention relates generally to computer implemented calendar applications or “soft” calendar applications. More particularly, it relates to searching for specific dates or date ranges in such calendar applications.
As people schedule their daily activities, they may need to access a specific day, range of days, or time period in a calendar application. For example, a person may wish to check for availability for a meeting, dinner, vacation, or other types of activities/gathering set on a specific day(s) in the future, check for the earliest availability for an event/activity, plan for events/activities around a specific timeframe (i.e. holidays), check for a day of the week based on a date (e.g., what day of the week is September 22nd?) and vice versa, or quickly look up previously entered information.
Current calendar applications provide browse-based methods for finding specific dates or range of dates. That is, people must browse through calendars, typically by scrolling through sequential months or weeks, since this is the currently provided method. However, this type of scrolling feature to find a date or range of dates is very limited. For example, a person cannot find a set of dates based on what those dates signify in that person's life. For example, December 25th is known commonly as Christmas, and a person cannot find a “Christmas” date.
By browsing, people cannot go to a date quickly (unless the date is within the immediate view). Users look up or navigate to the desired dates by browsing through the calendar, sometimes having to click several times back and forth through time. Needless to say, this process can be quite time consuming for the calendar user.
Accordingly, improved mechanisms for locating a date or range of dates in a calendar system or the like would be beneficial.